Ça fait un peu boui-boui, mais il y a de la jolie moisissure ...

Welcome! Or is that bienvenue? It's been a long time between drinks here on the blog. Pardon.

Where to begin? I'll start at an Internet cafe in Montreal where I arrived a few hours ago. People here prefer to speak French rather than English and I am trying to get used to a real foreign experience - attempting to understand some people who have trouble understanding me. That sounds familiar. Another phrase, "Pardon, mais je ne parle pas français", will most definitely be used for the two days I am here as I quickly recall some of those phrases learnt in Year 8 French class all those years ago.

The above phrase ("It's a bit of a dive, but it has some nice mould") applied to the four nights I spent in Toronto, in particular at the Global. The place had a distinctive odour, was a bit messy and thongs were mandatory in the shower.

Overall, a good attitude was required for my international hostel debut, but I knew someone was looking down on me as soon as I walked through the door. The Postal Service album was in the CD player and as my mate Rivjuando said: "How bad can a hostel be if they are playing that?"

I met some great people from all over this wonderful world. The festivities started on Wednesday with a party and I stayed out until 3am. If London has a lot of Aussies there, then Toronto comes very close. I had a few beers with one Aussie who wasn't acting like a wanker, a bright spark studying aeronautical engineering at Oxford. He should add Advanced Beer Drinking 101 to that impressive CV.

On Thursday, a new Irish friend accompanied me to see my Seattle Mariners lose to the hometown Blue Jays. The stadium, formerly (but still affectionately) known as the SkyDome was the first retractable roof stadium built, more than a decade before the Telstra Dome in Melbourne opened for business.

My colleague and former housemate, the District Attorney met me in Toronto on Friday and we travelled up the CN Tower, which is apparently the world's tallest building at 553 metres. Their website even says so. It's a great feeling having a beer while sitting on top of the world. On Saturday, we took a tour to Niagara Falls before heading out with a couple of lovely lasses from England and Canada respectively. It was an awesome day.

Yesterday, we went to the Hockey Hall Of Fame, walked extensively around the downtown area and saw Wedding Crashers before embarking on the eight-hour journey, arriving around 8am local time. The trip was surprisingly smooth and I was able to get some leg room and a few naps in between.

I look forward to posting some pictures here at JB HQ when I can, but for now, I'm going to go and buy a French dictionary. Au revoir!